Fear or Falsehood? Framing the 3/11 Terrorist Attacks in Madrid and Electoral Accountability

The terrorist attacks of 11 March 2004 in Madrid:

Failures of organisation, anticipation and learning in the system of security crisis management (early alert and strategic surprise, information policy, police and intelligence leaks to the opposition and media, partisan politicisation of terrorist attacks) in comparison with the effective operation of the emergency response.

Whether the PP government mismanaged its relations with other elites and journalists, especially as it was unable to find compelling schemas that supported its main line of argument (‘the ETA authorship frame’) during the days before the election, while prime minister J.M. Aznar lost control of the frame because of his lack of credibility.

Under these circumstances, elite opponents and oppositional journalists could attain as much influence over framing as the government, and developed their own line assigning blame to the government (‘the government is lying’ frame), winning the both frame contest and the elections.